The Marx Brothers are surprised sleeping in the bed department of The Big Store, so they just pretend to be salesmen, showing the customers all kinds of beds: a davenport sofa that elevates to display bunk beds, a bookcase that can be turned into a bed, a bank safe bed—a safe place to keep the kids— or a foldout tent that appears from a trunk of a car drawn in the wall. All of them activated by push-buttons from a control panel…
In the very last scene of the clip, Groucho goes to bed like having in mind this Thomas Hood verses from Miss Kilmansegg and her precious leg; a golden legend (1870):
Oh bed! oh bed! delicious bed!
That heaven upon earth to the weary head;
Groucho quoted them in his book Beds (first published in 1930), where he doesn’t write about beds as objects—well, he does, too—but mostly about situations in life with beds involved:
I sleep now in a very sophisticated bed, with lots of buttons to raise head and feet. As I’ve never been good at mechanics, I spend many nights sleeping in a 45 degrees angle. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I dial a combination that folds me in three, just like a Playboy centerfold.*
The Big Store fragment transcription:
Woman - …Just wait till you see this bed, Henry. I saw it yesterday, and I’m crazy about it. I fell in love with it. Turn around. Now, wait a minute… Pardon me. Mister. Mister! Can you tell me the price of this bed?
Groucho - Eight thousand dollars.
Woman - That’s preposterous! I can get the same bed anywhere in town for $25.
Groucho - Not with me in it.[...]
Man - We like to see something that is different in a bed.
Groucho - You would? Just press that button over by the davenport.
Man - Where is the davenport?
Groucho - It’s in Iowa. Too bad you missed, that was a $9 question.Chico - Well, what do you want?
Man - Well, me and my family, we live in a three-room apartment and all I can see is beds, beds, beds… And believe me, I got no room for nothing else. That’s why I’m looking for something that no look like a bed.
Chico - Well, you gonna worry no more. [...] See? That’s a wonderful bed.
Man - That’s a bed?
Chico - Sure. I show you.
Man - What’s the matter that fella?
Wife - I don’t know… oh, look, Guiseppi!
Chico - It’s a bookcase by day, is a bed by night.
Wife - I don’t like this bed.
Chico - All right. All right. You no like this bed, I show you another one.
*Fragment translated from the spanish publication of the book:
Marx, Groucho. Camas. Barcelona: Tusquets Editores, 1977 [edición Fábula; ©1930], p.19-20.
